Meaning & use
chronological order
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Meanings
noununcountable
An arrangement of events or items so that they follow the order in which they happened, earliest first.
Grammar: Used with in: list the events in chronological order.
Patterns
- in chronological order
- arrange something in chronological order
The museum shows the paintings in chronological order.
Please list your jobs in chronological order.
The report lists the events in chronological order.
noununcountable
A writing or storytelling method that tells events in the order they occurred.
Grammar: Often contrasted with flashbacks or other jumps in time.
Patterns
- tell something in chronological order
The novel is told in chronological order.
Students wrote the story in chronological order.
The documentary presents events in chronological order.
Common combinations
- in chronological order
- Arrange the cards in chronological order.
- reverse chronological order
- Resumes often list jobs in reverse chronological order.
- strict chronological order
- The diary entries follow strict chronological order.
- put in chronological order
- Put these photos in chronological order.
- chronological order of events
- Explain the chronological order of events.
Synonyms and how they differ
- timeline
- A timeline is a visual or written list of events, while chronological order is the arrangement itself.
- sequence
- Sequence is any order, while chronological order is specifically by time.
- date order
- Date order is plainer and focuses on dates as the sorting rule.
Opposites
Word family
- chronology noun
- the order in which events happened
- chronological adjective
- arranged by time
- chronologically adverb
- in order of time
- chronicle noun
- a written record of events in order
Commonly confused: chronological order or alphabetical order? chronological order or chronic?
chronological order vs alphabetical order
Alphabetical order sorts by letters, not time.
chronological order vs chronic
Chronic means lasting a long time, as of illness, and is not about order.
Practice
The teacher asked us to put the historical events in ___ so that the earliest came first.
Choose one answer.
Chronological order sorts by time with the earliest first. Reverse order would put the latest first, which is a tempting but opposite choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chronological order”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.